Saturday, December 20, 2008

"... storms will be sandwiched around an arctic air mass plunging out of the Arctic. The Midwest Regional News story reports the core of the cold will spread across the Plains into the Midwest this weekend. Temperatures will plummet to or below zero, while AccuWeather.com RealFeel temperatures will make it feel much colder. The extreme cold could cause hypothermia or frostbite in anyone exposed to the cold for even short periods of time."

City officials are finally admitting what others have been saying for years: San Francisco is attracting huge numbers of homeless people from all over. Thousands of transient people, arriving from other counties, states and even countries, are overwhelming the city's homeless system.

Facing a crippling budget shortfall, officials at San Francisco's homeless agencies are proposing a radical idea - take care of the city's own first, and require newcomers to show proof of residency for aid.

"If a homeless family living in San Francisco doesn't get shelter, and somebody just off the bus does, it doesn't seem fair," said Trent Rhorer, director of the Department of Human Services.

C'mon, where's the love? It's not a homeless guy's problem he miraculously found enough money for bus fair so he could squeeze your city services.

I'll give the San Franciscans a really radical idea. Do what Westerville, West Chester or Beavercreek Ohio does. Don't spend any money on the homeless and they'll disappear

Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science.

The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.z

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of morons promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

Liberals love to worry about the Bushies listening in on their conversations.

But if you haven't read about this total bit of government intrusion right here in Ohio, read this.

It will frost your balls.

On the morning of December 1, 2008, law enforcement officers forcefully entered the Stowers' residence, without first announcing they were police or stating the purpose of the visit. With guns drawn, officers swiftly and immediately moved to the upstairs of the home, finding ten children in the middle of a home-schooling lesson. Officers then moved Jacqueline Stowers and her children to their living room where they were held for more than six hours.

Such are raids are beyond the scope of the purely administrative authority delegated to ODA and county health departments. In enforcing licensure laws, these agencies are only permitted to contract for routine enforcement services. Forceful raids and sweeping searches and seizures are not routine, and exceed the authority granted to ODA and county health departments.

The Buckeye Institute seeks an injunction against similar future raids, and a declaration that such licensure laws are unconstitutional as applied the Stowers and individuals like them.

Since Clinton's inauguration, summer Arctic sea ice has lost the equivalent of Alaska, California and Texas. The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since Clinton's second inauguration. Global warming is accelerating.

Rubbish. Global warming is not “accelerating”: global warming has stopped. There has been no statistically significant rise in mean global temperature (MGT) since 1995, and MGT has fallen since 1998.

The Earth has been warming for 300 years since the Little Ice Age (LIA) so, of course, the warmest years happened recently. But that warming from the LIA peaked in the El Niño year of 1998. MGT has been near but below that peak for the last ten years.

Arctic ice advances and recedes over decades. The year 2007 saw a minimum in Arctic ice cover in the short period that it has been monitored using satellites. But 2008 saw the most rapid growth in Arctic ice cover in that same period and Arctic ice cover is now back to the average it has had in the period. Also, 95 percent of polar ice is in the Antarctic, and Antarctic ice is increasing.

Nobody can know if the recent halt to global warming is temporary, permanent, or the start of a new warming or cooling phase. But it is certain that anybody who proclaims that “Global warming is accelerating” is “a liar, a fool, or both.”

Thomas Sowell on the day of reckoning for the American auto business....

Some of us were raised to believe that reality is inescapable. But that just shows how far behind the times we are. Today, reality is optional. At the very least, it can be postponed.

Kids in school are not learning? Not a problem. Just promote them on to the next grade anyway. Call it "compassion," so as not to hurt their "self-esteem."

Can't meet college admissions standards after they graduate from high school? Denounce those standards as just arbitrary barriers to favor the privileged, and demand that exceptions be made.

Can't do math or science after they are in college? Denounce those courses for their rigidity and insensitivity, and create softer courses that the students can pass to get their degrees.

Once they are out in the real world, people with diplomas and degrees-- but with no real education-- can hit a wall. But by then the day of reckoning has been postponed for 15 or more years. Of course, the reckoning itself can last the rest of their lives.

The current bailout extravaganza is applying the postponement of reality democratically-- to the rich as well as the poor, to the irresponsible as well as to the responsible, to the inefficient as well as to the efficient. It is a triumph of the non-judgmental philosophy that we have heard so much about in high-toned circles.

I've never considered myself the smartest guy in the world. But I've always tried to emulate what successful people do.

Here's a couple of examples. I've nevered whored around and created a child support nightmare. I went to school and received an education. I've always worked and never left a job without another in place.

In fact, if you do only those three things in life, statistically your odds of ever living in poverty are minute.

Liberals have always cracked me up with their lack of introspection. Case in point. Your city budgets are always strained and residents are leaving your city for the suburbs where the tax base is about one half of yours. What is your first instinct? Instead of reforming your city and making your community more like a successful suburb, you raise taxes which does nothing more than chase more people away.

Here's a good post over at NRO on the introspection of California liberals.

One of the strangest things about the current California meltdown is how no one in state government here ever pauses to ask simple questions like: Why do we have the largest annual deficit with one of the highest sales tax and income tax rates in the country?

Anyone who charted the annual state budget increases over the last 10 years and adjusted for population and inflation rises would conclude that the state has decided to take over all sorts of previously private responsibilities and to ensure state employees and various dependents a level of compensation that is not sustainable.

It is not as if California decided about 10 years ago to invest to ensure we had state of the art freeways, university campuses, ports, airports, dams, canals, and power infrastructure. Instead, it was too often redistribution rather than investment. It is not like we can get out of the mess by simply stopping all construction when a vast public work force with pension and salary claims, along with entitlements and welfare, take the lion's share of the budget.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands whom we used to count on to pay our nearly 10% state income rates continue to flee the state. All the past sleight-of-hand borrowing, reliance on inflated real estate, lotteries, bonds, etc. have already been tried. Now we hit the wall of reality, whose iron-clad law — when you have no money, you really have no money — cannot be so easily demagogued away.

I guess what Ronald Reagan said 40 years ago still holds true today. "Liberals know so much, they just no so much that isn't so."

Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty was confronted face-to-face Thursday with some of the district's crime problems, when it turned out the host of the morning talk show he appeared on had been mugged in the city an hour earlier.

MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski was mugged outside a well-known Washington hotel while waiting for a car to pick her up for the 6 a.m. broadcast of the show she co-hosts with Joe Scarborough, "Morning Joe."

As the show began, Mr. Scarborough blasted Washington without naming the hotel, saying he needed to talk about what had just happened to his co-host.

Mrs. Brzezinski said she was embarrassed and didn't want him to tell viewers about the experience, but he detailed the mugging and complained the bell desk should have been paying attention.

If the life of "progress" is so wonderful, why do people flee it like the Exodus?

Don't believe me? Look at every city in this country.

Still don't believe me? Look at the Mecca of "progressive" living in this country, California.....

They said, "Go west," but many Californians are going north and east.

For the fourth year in a row, more residents left the Golden State than moved here from other states, according to a report released Wednesday by the California Department of Finance.

The outflow -- last seen during the economic and social struggles of the 1990s -- started when it became too expensive for most people to buy homes in the state, and has kept going throughout the bust with the loss of so many jobs.

The trend underscores the state's sour economy as layoffs continue, the fiscal strain on government grows and home values continue to decline.

Though more births and rising international immigration helped boost California's population a modest 1.16% last year, the state continued its steady stream of domestic out-migration -- the movement to other states of people who live here.

During the last fiscal year, 135,173 more people moved out of California than moved in from other states. Though just a drop in the bucket for a state of 38 million people, the trend remains significant because such declines usually occur when working Californians decide better opportunities lie elsewhere.

They called it ParadiseI don't know whySomebody laid the mountains lowWhile the town got high

Last night, over beers the topic of the Bengals inevitably came up. The conventional wisdom is that Mike Brown is a good "businessman".

Let's be clear about something. Mike Brown is no more a good business man as Bernard Madoff is. Mike Brown never ran anything that wasn't handed to him in monopoly form. A good businessman generates goodwill towards his customer base and community. He extorted a community out of a billion dollars to build a palace for that landfill of a team. Exactly how does that make you a good "businessman"?

The other myth about Mike Brown is that he's a "decent" man. One of the teams best all time players, Reggie Williams, will soon have his legs amputated as a result of complications from surgeries on injuries he received as a player. Do you think Mike Brown could have sprung for a $500.00 plane ticket for Reggie to honor him as one of the team greats? No.

To call Mike Brown a pile of shit would be an insult to excrement.

And until fans quit supporting that douche bag, he'll continue to put the same quality of product he has for the past eighteen years.

It's truly unfortunate that you have to root for someone to die in order to have a good football team. But that is truly who Mike Brown is. All this other crap about him being decent and/or a good businessman is simply mythology.

So your team is 2-11-1. I guess that gives you license to be a douche bag to a media member asking a good question about your crappy 2-11-1 football team. This clown is gotten more free passes than Obama....

I love college football. Unfortunately, I hate the BCS and the way the big programs load up their schedules with snacks off the Twinkie truck.

If you are an AD at a BCS school here is your mission. Load up your nonconference schedule with W's, then hope for an undefeated or one loss conference schedule for your BCS shot.

As a result, no one can really determine who the better teams are in the country without making a subjective call on who the best conferences are.

For instance, the conventional wisdom this year is that the Big Twelve and the SEC are the best conferences this year. Why? Both conferences members played no one. But how does the Big Eleven or the PAC - 10 lay claim? They don't play anyone out of conference either.

Now look at a team like Boise State. Critics say "play someone". How? Do you think USC or Penn State are going to schedule a team like Boise State, who could upset their national championship run, when they can set up a patsy like San Diego State?

Here's a column in the WSJ about the woeful nonconference scheduling....

We now know who's champion of the Big 12, purported to be the best conference in the country. But have we any idea how that conference compares to the other majors? In nonconference play, the entire Big 12 played three teams currently ranked in the Associated Press top 25: Virginia Tech, who defeated Nebraska in Lincoln, and Texas Christian and Cincinnati, both of which Oklahoma routed in Norman. Cincinnati went on to win the Big East, so one can draw some conclusions about that conference -- not that anyone is taking the Big East seriously this season anyway.

But how does this establish the Big 12's supposed superiority over the other top leagues? Regardless of how many points the Sooners are scoring, why shouldn't one assume until proven otherwise that Oklahoma will get outclassed come January, as it has in four of its past five bowl games?

This season, the Big 12's reputation (and, therefore, its teams' rankings) was built not only on the offensive might of Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech, but also on the spotless records that those teams and Missouri and Oklahoma State built in September -- records that, save for the aforementioned TCU and Cincinnati games, were built largely on nothing. Meanwhile, the precious few nonconference showdowns that did occur nationally have had an outsized impact on the rankings all season.

Consider: Why has Alabama been ranked ahead of Penn State all season? Granted, the reasoning was obvious for a few weeks last month, when Alabama was still unbeaten and Penn State had just suffered that one-point loss at Iowa. But Penn State's victories over Ohio State and Oregon State trump any two of Alabama's. Penn State's strength of schedule is practically identical to the Crimson Tide's. Penn State's defense is statistically comparable; its offense is superior.

There's one reason why Penn State has been at a reputational deficit all season: Ohio State-Southern California. USC's September blowout of the Buckeyes colored popular opinion of the Big Ten (or, rather, reconfirmed old suspicions) – as it should have. The only unfair aspect of this is that the Buckeyes (and, by extension, the Big Ten) were one of the few that stuck its nonconference neck out this season. Had there been just a couple of major interconference games involving the Big 12 -- Missouri-Illinois was as big as those got -- that league's reputation and its teams' rankings might've been different, too.

In an interview published December 10th in the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, Barack Obama stated that one of his top priorities as president will be to put an end to racial discrimination in the criminal-justice system.

While you're at it B, how about cleaning up that gender discrimination in the criminal justice system as well.

I mean c'mon, 9 men in prison for every one woman. Surely, men don't commit nine times the offenses that women do.

I think judging a college sports program by its graduation rate is a joke. So what if a program graduates 100% of its athlete in criminal justice? What does that prove to anyone?

Plus I've known plenty of quality people who never finished college just as Ive known plenty of d-bags with PhD's (actually must of the douche bags I know have at least a masters degree). All college should be about is expanding your horizons.

Regardless, the graduation rates of the schools in the BCS bowls.....

I FEEL LIKE Chris Berman of ESPN. With unprecedented passion, I can almost scream, "They . .. can. . . go. . . all. . . the. . . way! It's a 92-yard touch. . . No! . . . Graduation rate!" In the most encouraging sign yet that embarrassed colleges are fed up with the dumb-jock image, a record percentage of bowl-bound football programs scored a "touchdown" in my 13th annual Graduation Gap Bowl. A "touchdown" means a team graduates at least 50 percent of both black and white players, and has a racial gap of fewer than 15 percentage points.

The "touchdown" teams have more than doubled in the last four years. In the 2004 Graduation Gap Bowl, only 12 of 56 bowl teams (21 percent) made it to the end zone of academics. This year, 30 of the 68 bowl teams (44 percent) did the college version of the Lambeau Leap. Just as impressive, the combined number of teams that scored either a "touchdown" or a "first down" (high graduation rates, but with large racial gaps) has also more than doubled in three years. In the 2005 Gap Bowl, only 19 of 56 teams (34 percent) scored either. This year, 49 of the 68 (72 percent!) did so. The "touchdown" teams once again included Boston College and Connecticut.

Unfortunately, the national title game in the Bowl Championship Series has Florida vs. Oklahoma. Florida has a 68 percent graduation rate but a 25-percentage-point racial disparity. Oklahoma should flat-out be disqualified with a 46 percent graduation rate. Four other BCS bowl schools - Ohio State, Texas, Alabama, and Utah - have black graduation rates under 50 percent and an average racial gap of 30 percentage points. The gaps at all four schools were significantly worse than four years ago. Still, the overall improvements this year seeped up to the top five bowl games in the BCS. For the first time, more than one BCS game pits two "touchdown" teams: The Penn State/Southern Cal Rose Bowl and the Virginia Tech/Cincinnati Orange Bowl.

Speaking of Cincinnati, let's give credit where it is due. I've called its basketball program "Sinsinnati" for going years without graduating black players. Its football team eight years ago had a 37 percent graduation rate. Today, Cincinnati's football program graduates 68 percent of its black players along with 81 percent of its white players. Finally, even Cincinnati could. . . go. . . all. . . the. . . way!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

So the Messiah thinks the best candidate to run the department of education is the guy who runs the worst public school system in the country.

The school system The Messiah wouldn't even send his own kids too.....

Arne Duncan, the Chicago schools superintendent known for taking tough steps to improve schools while maintaining respectful relations with teachers and their unions, is President-elect Barack Obama’s choice as secretary of education, Democratic officials said Monday.

Mr. Duncan, a 44-year-old Harvard graduate, has raised achievement in the nation’s third-largest school district and often faced the ticklish challenge of shuttering failing schools and replacing ineffective teachers, usually with improved results.

He represents a compromise choice in the debate that has divided Democrats in recent months over the proper course for public-school policy after the Bush years.

In June, rival nationwide groups of educators circulated competing educational manifestos, with one group espousing a get-tough policy based on pushing teachers and administrators harder to raise achievement, and another arguing that schools alone could not close the racial achievement gap and urging new investments in school-based health clinics and other social programs to help poor students learn.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank all of you for your e-mails of support regarding this interview that Colin Powell did on CNN yesterday. The whole thing wears me out. It's nothing new except now it's coming from ostensibly the Republican Party. Now, Snerdley is livid, many of my staff and friends are livid. To me, it's not that big a deal. I think Powell's premise -- and I understand what's going on -- I think Powell's premise is all wrong. The Republican Party needs to stop listening to me. Basically, what that means is the Republican Party's gotta throw you overboard; the Republican Party can't win as long as it is defined by people like you and me, those of you in this audience. The simple fact of the matter is, folks, what makes this funny to me is that the Republican Party's not listened to me in the last two years. And you might even say in matters of policy and so forth, the Republican Party hasn't been listening to me for the last six years. And you might even say that the Republican Party is in the situation it's in precisely because of the people like Colin Powell and John McCain and others who have devised this new definition and identity of the party which is responsible for electing Democrats all over this country.

Hey Chuck, what do you have against black women? Somehow, of the millions of nice black women in this country you couldn't find one worth marrying? Are you a racist?

Look, I think Auburn made a huge mistake in hiring the guy they did. But then again, this is the same school that tried to fire their coach only one year after an undefeated season and replace him with a pile of crap d-bag in Bobby Petrino. So I think it's already safe to say that they have issues as an athletic program.

But for someone to cry out racism on this hire is idiotic. The only color SEC teams see when it comes to football is W's (I know W is not a color but we're talking about SEC football here). If a black coach is going to deliver those W's, he'll be there tomorrow.

But let's face it, Auburn did allow Barkley into school there. So you already know their judgment is faulty.

It's been a while since we've handed out a Pot, Kettle Award winner but we do have one today....

Climate deniers.

Contrary to what you think, it's not those of us who question the science of global warming but those who question climate science at all.

From the American Thinker....

Last week, soon-to-be President Barack Obama met with former Vice President Al Gore to discuss global warming. In a brief presser following their closed-door rendezvous, Obama proclaimed, "the time for denial is over."

Ironically, as Obama yammered, Louisiana hurriedly prepared for a powerful cold front which would arrive the following night. The wintry storm ultimately dumped 6 inches of snow in Livingston Parish and dusted New Orleans with its earliest snowfall since records were accurately established in 1850. And the deep-south cold snap was not an isolated event.

For most of the United States and much of the world, this has been one of the colder autumns in well over a decade, with reports of unseasonable snowfalls and plummeting temperatures from the American Great Plains to the Alps of Europe and into the inner reaches of Asia. Even China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever" in October. In the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years. In fact, it's likely that 2008 will go down as the coldest year since in the United States since 1997.

More good news on the Deja Whitewater all over again front. Surprise! It's another Clintonista....

A federal grand jury is investigating how a company that advised Jefferson County, Alabama, on bond deals that threaten to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, did similar work in New Mexico after making contributions to Governor Bill Richardson’s political action committees.

The grand jury in Albuquerque is looking into Beverly Hills, California-based CDR Financial Products Inc., which received almost $1.5 million in fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority in 2004 after donating $100,000 to Richardson’s efforts to register Hispanic and American Indian voters and pay for expenses at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, people familiar with the matter said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation asked current and former officials from the state agency if any staff members in the governor’s office influenced CDR’s hiring, said the people, who declined to be identified because the proceedings are secret. Richardson, who is President-elect Barack Obama’s designate for Commerce Secretary, has a staff of at least 30 people.

Don't forget NY, where it looks like the Kennedy's will be promising the state some extra love for appointing Neophyte Caroline Kennedy to the senate seat vacated by the Billary.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Jodi Hamilton began her senior year of high school in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., this fall on the usual prosperous footing. Her parents were providing a weekly allowance of $100 and paying for private Pilates classes, as well as a physics tutor who reported once a week to their 4,000-square-foot home.

But in October, Jodi’s mother lost her job managing a huge dental practice in the Bronx, then landed one closer to home that requires more hours for less money. Pilates was dropped, along with takeout sushi dinners, and Jodi’s allowance, which covers lunch during the week, slipped to $60. Instead of having a tutor, Jodi has become a tutor, earning $150 a week through that and baby-sitting.

President-elect Barack Obama said Monday a review by his own lawyer shows he had no direct contact with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich about the appointment of a Senate replacement, and transition aides did nothing inappropriate.

Yeah, according to Robert Shapiro's review, O.J. didn't kill his ex wife.

According to a review by B.J. Clinton's attorney, he did not have sexual relations with that woman.

According to a review by William Jefferson's attorney, he was just keeping $100,000 in his freezer to keep it from melting.

It's a good thing Obama has one of those attorney's to remind him of one of those important meetings he may or may not have had but couldn't remember. It's Deja Whitewater all over again....